Your+First+Year+of+College--Busting+Loose

By: Ken Callaway and Martin Jimenez || ||
 * || ==Your First Year of College: Bustin' Loose==

Overview
The transition from high school to college can be a difficult one. Students trade an environment where they are closely monitored by both parents and instructors for one where adult supervision and guidance is virtually non-existent. Suddenly the freedoms and temptations outnumber than the restraints and responsibilities. How is a young adult to negotiate the turbulent waters of their first year of college with so little support? //Your First Year of College: Bustin' Loose// is designed to give high school students an opportunity to simulate this experience before being thrust out there on their own.

Instructional Objective
//Your First Year of College: Bustin' Loose// (//YFYC:BL//)is designed not designed to be part of the high school curriculum and thus does not fit into the curricular frameworks. Rather the game is meant to provide a road map of the pitfalls that might waylay high school students as they enter into the world of higher education. The instructional objective of //YFYC:BL,// then//,// is to provide a safe, simulated environment that prospective college students can explore in order to cut down the number of students who drop out or are placed on probation during their first year at college//.//

Learners
The game is designed for high school juniors and seniors who anticipate attending a four-year university upon graduation. It is best suited as a simulated orientation tool for acquainting students with challenges facing any first-year college student. These challenges include budgeting financial resources and sharpening time-management skills. While most students can find assistance in applying for colleges, student loans, and grants at their school site's counseling office, most students would not be able to experience the challenges facing college freshmen without an extended field trip experience to a college campus. YFYC:BL will be designed to provide a virtual extended-stay field trip that will help students develop practical skills and strategies to help make their freshman year in college a success.

Context of Use
As a simulation game, //YFYC:BL// is designed to be useful in a variety of settings. As it is aimed at high school students, it's main users would undoubtedly be high schools, but licenses could easily be purchased by interested parents for use at home. In the high school setting, there could be a virtually unlimited number of scenarios in which it could be used. //YFYC:BL// could be installed in computer labs so that teachers could bring in entire classes to run through the simulations. This would open up a venue for interesting discussions the entire class could participate in as a follow-up to the game play. It could also be on a stand-alone computer in a teacher's classroom where an interested or assigned student could explore the simulation on their own//.// It could also be used for group play within a classroom, particularly if the room has a projector connected to the computer. The students could make decisions through group consensus, discussing their reasons behind their choices as they work their way through the game. Perhaps one of the best uses of the game would be within the [|AVID]program. AVID coordinators could use the program to introduce their students to college life, and the decisions that they will be facing within just a few years.

As mentioned earlier, //YFYC:BL// is programmed to provide for virtually unlimited game play. A player can log in for 15-30 minutes, make some choices, altering their avatar's parameters, then log back out again, knowing the game will be there, ready for them to keep exploring the simulation. As the game learns and adapts, game play changes as well. Obviously, after several hours of play, many of the choices and consequences will start to seem similar, but this just mirrors life in "the real world".

The game is designed for the Apple OSX platform initially as this is the most common platform in the educational market. It will be ported to Windows within a year of launch. There are no plans to make the game playable on the Internet, though it will feature an auto-update capability, so that regular downloads can update the game and give it different "skins". (Plans are in the works to allow the campus to simulate some of the major universities around the country.) There are also no plans to make it a multi-player experience. The simulation is not meant to provide for a competitive experience; rather it is designed to offer the player self-growth and self-knowledge.

Scope
//YFYC:BL// is being designed from the ground up to have extended playtime. Using the latest "smart technology", the game is capable of learning from choices made during prior play. This means that play is virtually unlimited, as each time the "game" is played, the decisions and consequences are continually altered, much as what occurs in "the real world".

Play areas will focus on three general areas: Play will focus on first on the campus itself. Some of the most important content will be in choosing classes and rooming assignments. As the player progresses, the content becomes more diverse, with decisions being made on a variety of topics including: There will be some common themes of college life that will be excluded or limited. Considering that the audience for //YFYC:BL// will be high school students, 16-18 years of age, the amount of sexuality alluded to in the game will be minor. Interactions between the sexes will be part of the game, as it is a big part of college life, but there will be no nudity or explicit sexual activity included. The use and selling of drugs will also be downplayed as well. The consumption of alcohol and marijuana will be included to make the player aware of the temptations, but there will be no way for the player to choose to focus on these activities alone. Off campus activities will be part of the game, but will also be limited in scope. The player will be allowed to go "into town" if they so chose, but only for a limited time. Game play is designed to focus on campus life, and will not allow a player to remain in the surrounding area for more than a few minutes at a time.
 * The campus, which includes 4 main buildings (the administrative offices as well as three others each with multiple classrooms), the student library, the open area student quad, and the sports facilities
 * The living areas, which includes two single-gender dorms and the off-campus housing
 * The campus environs, including two bars, a juice bar, three restaurants, a park, and the sheriff's office.
 * how much time should be devoted to study,
 * use of study groups,
 * choosing whether or not to attend classes,
 * how much time should be spent in extra-curricular sports,
 * interacting with "townies",
 * which professors should one choose, and
 * choosing social activities.

Object of the Game
The goal for players will be to achieve a favorable balance of four major game parameters: maintaining a minimum GPA of 2.5, maintaining a positive cash flow (in other words, not running out of money), maintaining health and psychological well-being over the course of one full school year (or two semesters). Players could be bounced from the game or forced to start over if one or more of these goals are not met at the end of each semester. At the end of each quarter semester players will be given a status report in which they will be given detailed feedback as to their progress in each of the four game parameters. Players will be able to choose a difficulty level upon starting a game:


 * Freshman (lowest)
 * Sophomore (medium)
 * Upperclassman (hardest)

Difficulty levels determine a players starting finances, coursework difficulty, and the frequency of the distractions matrix. The distractions matrix will present players with a variety of possible distractions to college campus life like weekend social functions, phone calls from friends and parents, and intermittent illnesses.

Competing Products
The [|Sims 2: University] pack provides an experience similar to YFYC:BL. The University expansion pack is an add-on to the popular computer game [|The Sims 2] in which players are charged with keeping their up with their character's basic needs of hunger, social interaction, fun, energy, hygene, and bladder. The University expansion places the "sim" character on a college campus environment in which the player has the added challenge of guiding the sim through 8 semesters of college. The sim must choose a major, find a place to live, maintain their finances, find friends, and maintain a C average in their classes to graduate from the college experience. At the conclusion of the college experience, the Sim achieves "adult" status and must return to their home town to find a job and potentially start a family.



YFYC:BL is designed to teach students about the opportunities and potential pitfalls facing first year college students. The Sims 2: University is strictly for entertainment purposes in which players have the option to completely disregard their academic endeavors and immerse themselves completely in the social vices of college campus life. The Sims game includes a "free will" dynamic in which a player has the option of just watching his character act on his/her own, as if the player was on auto-pilot. YFYC:BL will be designed entirely on player-controlled choices since the purpose of the game is to expose players to the types of decision-making that awaits their lives on a college campus.

//Universal Elements//
The look and feel of the game is designed to feel like The Sims. The buildings and grounds of the campus will be meticulously created to photorealistic standards so that the player feels as though he or she is actually roaming the halls of higher learning. A variety of skins will be created simulating the appearance of many of the more famous universities in the country, including Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley, to name a few. The avatars. which will be modifiable by the players, will allow a wide range of appearance in terms of clothing, skin tone, and hair style. The avatars can be changed at any time during game play without altering other aspects of the game, so if a player wants to change their identity during play, they may do so without penalty.

//Specific Elements//
Players will begin the game at the site of YFYC:BL's virtual campus, Callaway State, in the admissions office. The admissions office will be the default starting point for all new players. From hear, students will be able to choose and customize their avatars, choose a class schedule, and determine whether to live in the on-campus dorms or in off-campus apartments. Students will have a set amount of cash to start with depending on their difficulty level ($15,000 for Upperclassman, $18,000 for Sophomore level, and $20,000 for Freshman level). YFYC:BL will use San Diego State University as a model for calculating student expenses (see [|SDSU's Costs of Education webpage]). The students will register their character The primary tool that students will use to keep track or their finances, personal contacts, class schedule, and extracurricular activities will be the Student Personal Digital Assistant (SPDA).



The SPDA is a hand-held device much like the [|Blackberry] 3G devices currently on the market. Through this device they may contact friends, family, faculty, as well as receive incoming calls and messages. Some of these calls an messages will require that students make choices that will affect their overall performance level in the game. The SPDA device will be the main display used to indicate the constantly changing output variables (i.e. student finances, GPA, happiness/fulfillment, and health levels). The default SPDA screen will be divided into four quadrants for the display of these output variables. Student finances will be displayed in dollar amounts (red for negative/debt, black for positive/savings), GPA would be shown as a decimal value ranging from 4.0 to 0, and happiness/fulfillment and health levels will be shown as two separate gauges ranging from unfavorable to favorable. The SPDA will also keep track of time in the YFYC:BL world (30 seconds equals 1 hour in the YFYC:BL world) and alert students regarding upcoming class meetings, study groups, or social events.

The most often used user-manipulable variables in the game include the SPDA device, student clothing (various clothing options can purchased at the student quad and sports facilities), class textbooks, and the community computer (found on either the on-campus dorms, library, or off-campus apartment). Students can select their various class textbooks at any point during the game and choose an alloted amount of time in which to study for a given class Students will also interact with computer-controlled campus residents and faculty as they work their way through their first year of virtual college. Interactions with these computer-controlled entities will take place in the various campus areas featured in YFYC:BL (see Scope section for more detail).

Players will be given various assignments and tasks throughout the school year. YFYC:BL will not require any specific adademic knowledge as a prerequisite for completing assignments. Rather, students will be given a generic task (i.e. term paper, research project, mid-term) and be responsible for alloting time out of their busy day to complete such tasks. Each task will have a specific amount of time required to achieve a given letter grade. The students letter grade on assignments and tests (including finals) will be determined by how much time they spend on their tasks. However, time spent on academic pursuits takes away from activities needed to maintain acceptable levels of student happiness/fulfillment levels and health. This presents the inherent challenge of YFYC:BL. Students will need to find the happy medium in which they can maintain a favorable balance of the four main output variables (finance, GPA, happiness/fulfillment, and health).

**Description of the mathematical and logical relationships that link the input variables and output variables**
This section presented us as game designers with some new ground to explore. Looking at underlying models was something neither of us had any experience in, so we stumbled about a bit. Looking at the [|four general types of models]--scientifically-based quantitative, qualitative, highly abstracted, and real world--we quickly discarded both the first and the third. Looking at the other two, we saw some strengths in both. The real world model assumes a direct relationship with the real world and addresses the topic in depth. However, the qualitative model offers more concentration on essential characteristics, something that the authors felt was important to our simulation of dealing with college life. Also, the model will need to have some build in assumptions, which we felt would be necessary for having our players making what we deemed to be the "correct" choices concerning studying, choosing classes, making friends, etc. While the real world model seemed a viable alternative, we decided to base the logic structure on the qualitative model.

**Specific software needed to author the game**
The game development tool we will be using to create Your First Year of College: Bustin' Loose will be [|Unity]. This is a multi-platform, fully integrated editor that allows photorealistic graphics to mix smoothly with animation and audio to bring to live an immersive play environment. [|Maya] will be used to create the 3d models that will be imported into Unity. For sound creation and editing, [|SonicSynth 2] and [|Bias Peak Pro 6] will be used.

One of the advantages of Unity as a game design platform is that it can publish directly to multiple platforms. At this time, our plans are to develop for Macintosh OS X universal binary and Windows Vista. However, Unity allows us to develop builds for either Macintosh that currently support OS X, (Intel only machines or PPC). If the market is there, builds could also be done for Windows XP or even 2000.
 * Platform(s) the game would be developed for**

The graphics specifications being used within Unity will be OpenGL. While the program can also use DirectX, since the game is being developed on a Mac, OpenGL was the only viable option for us. The 3D models imported from Maya will be in their proprietary .mb and .ma forms. All sounds created, whether they are AIFF, WAV, ACC, or MP3, will be converted by Unity to Oog Vorbis audio, an Open Source format.
 * File formats of graphics and sounds**

As mentioned above, Unity exports cross-platform natively, so there is no need to worry about accommodating multiple platforms. This was one of our reasons, as the game's designers, for choosing Unity as a development platform.
 * Method to accommodate multiple platforms**

= = All files used in saving the current games states will be stored online so that players may access their game from any computer with Internet access. Since many of the learners we envision playing the game will be at school sites, it is important that the files be accessible from home and at school, whether they are in computer labs or free standing computers within classrooms. We want to the students to be able to get in and out of their "college lives" with ease.
 * Data structures for any files used to save the game state**

Motivational Issues
Motivation presents a unique challenge with the playing of //YFYC:BL//. Much of the intended audience, largely high school junior and seniors, will come with a tremendous amount of internal motivation. They know, or at least feel, that not only is college a path to a "better life", but also that it will probably be one of the best times of their lives, (at least that's what their parents have told them). For many, however, the thought of going off to college seems to be a too-distant dream, or one that terrifies rather than entices. It is imperative for this portion of the student population that motivation is interwoven in the game's structure.

//YFYC:BL// will be structured to take advantage of individual rather than interpersonal motivation. Game play is designed to aid in personal growth and individual learning rather than competition against others or cooperating within groups. Malone and Leeper (1983) wrote about four types of intrinsic motivation: challenge, curiosity, control, and fantasy. It is these attributes that we as authors will concentrate on in building motivation into the game.

//Challenge//: To enhance this element, players will be able to pick from three levels, depending on how difficult they want game play to be for them. Within each level, the degree of uncertainty increases, decreasing the likelihood of successfully completing their first year of college. There is enough randomness and hidden information included at each level to simulate the uncertainty of decision-making we all confront in every day life. The relevance that Keller (1984) argues is necessary for situations to be intrinsically challenging presents no difficulty, as the game will be marketed as a useful survival tool for college-bound students.

//Curiosity//: The sensory curiosity element (Malone 1983) presents no difficulty considering the media-rich environment that players will be exploring. Combining the game platform, Unity, with the capabilities of Maya, SonicSynth 2, and Peak will create a visual and auditory treat for the senses. Cognitively, the player will be stimulated by exploring an environment similar to, yet in many ways quite unlike, their high school experience. As the player interacts with the game, they will be constantly shifting their views concerning themselves, higher education, and how (or even if) the two interrelate.

//Control//: One of the fundamental reasons for designing this game was to give young people a way to place themselves in a college environment without making them feel threatened. To do this, they had to have a feeling of power and control. One step in enhancing that feeling is to give them three levels of difficulty. Another was to allow a number of choices available whenever a decision point is reached. There are very few times within the game that a player is forced down a certain path, or is limited to an either-or situation. Of course, related to those choices is the recognition that the choices made by the player affect their options throughout the rest of game. This is not to say that one bad choice causes them to "lose", only that decisions have consequences that can limit choices in the future.

//Fantasy//: //YFYC:BL//, of course, is not designed to be a fantasy game. Indeed, far from it. Still, elements of fantasy are being utilized to enhance motivation. First of all, the ability to choose and modify different avatars is included to encourage each player to identify more closely with their chosen representative. Secondly, as the game is further developed, //skins// will be constructed featuring a variety of college campuses nation wide. By seeing "themselves" on the grounds of Dartmouth College, players of the game will that much more likely to see the possibility and not just the dream. Finally, and most importantly, this type of "endogenous fantasy" (Malone, Leeper, 1983) play is designed to learn and reinforce decision-making skills the players will need to navigate their freshman year in college. It is this bleeding between fantasy and reality that is at the very heart of the game.

Design Process
The initial idea for the game came from Ken Callaway. The challenges facing our school site at Sweetwater High School (National City, CA) is that few students have practical resources outside of the information provided by Sweetwater High's counseling department. While the counseling department can provide information on college application fees, deadlines, and preliminary information on campus and residential fees, students have a limited amount of practical experience in understanding what it takes to survive their first year of college and beyond. Our first thoughts in the design process was to provide a realistic and engaging experience that would simulate many of the situations facings first year college students. Some students who are enrolled in San Diego State Univesity's [|Gear-Up] or [|AVID] (Advancement Via Individual Determination) are able to take field trips to college campuses. However, these visits are usually a showcase of the facilities available to prospective students. They are not designed to prepare students for the academic, financial, and social challenges awaiting students during their freshman year.

The second phase of the design process was to explore the competing products available in the e-game format. An Internet search revealed that while there are several books and websites dedicated to providing tips for first-year college students, there has yet to be a computer game designed for this intended purpose. The only product that came close to emulating the type of experience needed to assist our target audience was the Sims 2: University expansion pack. While the Sims 2: University product was solely designed for entertainment purposes, there were several elements to the Sims 2 style of play that could be adapted to fit the needs our our intended audience. The key dynamics that we chose as the most important for YFCY:BL were
 * Simulating student finances and cash flow
 * Student happiness and fulfillment levels
 * Student grade point average (GPA)
 * Student health

After reviewing the Sims 2: University game model, it was decided that our game was not going to emulate all the mundane details of day-to-day life. For example, we found little use in using the Sims 2 dynamic of considering a students daily bathroom routine in efforts to maintain favorable levels in the "bladder" and "hygiene" levels. While this would have undoubtedly provided hours of entertainment value for our intended audience, we felt it was more important to focus on the core academic, social, and financial aspects of the simulation. This is primarily where the Sims 2 University and YFYC:BL diverge. The Sims 2 allows for the player to purposely doom their character to failure without any real consequence. There is no score kept in Sims 2 which ultimately allows players to "win" or "lose" the game. If your character gets kicked out of school or consequently dies, the player can simply pick another Sim to control and move on. YFYC:BL is designed to steer students towards eventual success for their character. The overall goal is to achieve and maintain favorable levels of cash flow, happiness, GPA, and health.



A group of 30 current Sweetwater students from grade levels ranging from sophomores to seniors were shown an overview of the YFYC:BL game concept. After an informal discussion about the game and the process of preparing for the first year of college, students seemed drawn to the game concept simply by the appearance of the Sims 2:Univesity screens shown as an example (some students were familiar with or had played the Sims 2). There was some disappointment over the designer's decision to omit the hygeine and bladder aspects of the Sims 2 format from overall design of YFYC:BL. But most students agreed that in the grand scheme of things, such functions would have little or no bearing on their plight during their first year of college. As expected, students indicated that they had more interest in the social aspects of the game concept rather than those dealing with academic endeavors. It was suggested by some students that there should be some sort of personality test worked into the registration phase of the game (possibly during the avatar set-up) that would assist students in choosing a course of study or major that would best suit their abilities and interests.

Additional feedback was gathered from our fellow EDTEC 670 students. While most of the comments were favorable towards the game concept and design, there was question as to possibility of extreme consequences for negative student behavior. For example, if a student spend all their time in a bar or chose to drive drunk, what would the consequence be? We decided not to make any special game elements for such situations. The rationale behind this decision is based on the fact that the game will measure the collective effects of all student decisions based on its running measurement of finances, health, and GPA throughout the simulated semester. It would seem apparent that if a student chose to purposely fail to meet the games objectives, then they would simply fail. The resulting fines and court fees associated with a D.U.I. charge (not to mention the time required for attending AA meetings) would count against the players financial balance sheet. At this stage of the design process only extended play-testing of a playable prototype could shed additional insight on the success or failure of the YFYC:BL game concept.